McGonagall's Photo
by N. Forest
Summary: Side story to The Dark, the Light, and the Grey. Seven year old Harry is injured at school and is given a book to distract him while he heals. But there's something in the book that will change the way he views his father forever.


**Disclaimer: **JKR owns everything. I don't.

_Author's Note: This is a side story to The Dark, the Light, and the Grey. It was written for the Potions and Snitches prompt fest! _

McGonagall's Photo

Minerva McGonagall looked through the photographs she had collected over the years. There were a few of her in her school days. Wearing the old Quidditch uniform, showing off her cat animagus form and playing with her friends.

There were pictures of her students. The transfiguration club had posed for her, Quidditch teams over the years. And in between all the official pictures were a few personal ones. Some of Harry, when when she'd watched him as a baby. Some of Lily and Severus. Pictures from Lily's wedding to James. She stopped at her favourite one.

Lily looked happy inside her picture. James had his arm around her waist and his nose in her hair as they smiled brightly for the camera. The other members of the group, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Black stood around them. All of them raising glasses to the couple and laughing along with them.

"Happy birthday Lily." Minerva whispered to the picture. "I'm sure Severus is telling Harry all about you." She still kept an eye on Harry. But no one had guessed his identity yet and he was a happy seven year old.

And downstairs, in the dungeons quarters of Severus and Bellatrix there was an event going on. But it wasn't for Lily's birthday. It wasn't even for anything good. It was bad and Severus was terrified.

The Thames Wizarding Day School had called him in the middle of one of his classes. _Something__ is wrong with Harry! _He jumped out from behind his desk. "Dismissed! Everyone get out!" He barked at the third years. They knew his tones well enough to jump to it. No one wanted to be in the Potion Master's way when he was in a mood.

"What happened?" He asked the secretary in the floo. "Is Harry all right?"

The Secretary didn't answer him. "Just come through Mr Snape. We've already called for a healer. He's going to be fine." She soothed.

Severus wasn't convinced. "Get out!" He yelled at her, ignoring her confused look. "I need to get through!" He barked and practically threw himself into the fire as soon as she pulled out. He ended up covered in ashes, coughing up bits of black when he stepped out.

"Are you all right?" the secretary asked him. "We could wait a moment before going to see Harry. I'm sure he can wait." She tried to assure him. "Don't worry. A healer will come and help him." She glanced around. "Do you want us to call his mother? Your wife?"

Severus shook his head. "Where is he?" He demanded, starting towards Harry's classroom.

The secretary sighed and led him outside to the charmed arena where the students took their breaks and played games during their physical education classes. Harry was slumped over a broom near one of the goal posts.

"Harry!" Snape pulled his robes tightly around himself and started running across the field. He stopped beside his son and knelt down. "Harry, please tell me you're all right." His son's eyes were closed and he was breathing very slowly.

Harry took another deep breath and opened his eyes an inch or so. "Hi Dad," he whispered, happy to see his father. He knew how to make potions and he always helped Harry feel better whenever he got sick or injured. "Do I have to take a potion?" he asked.

"No." Snape wanted to gather Harry up in his arms, but he could see that his leg was bent in a strange direction. "Does your leg hurt Harry?" he asked. Harry wasn't acting like he was in pain, but it could have been shock or surprise.

Harry shook his head. "The Games teacher used a spell on it. She said that it would block the pain." He turned his head to look around the field. "Can we go home now?" He squirmed slighting in the muddy ground. "It's all wet and icky here."

There wasn't time for Snape to answer, because a young Emergency Mediwizard and Mediwitch handed their flying carpet and jogged over.

The Mediwizard knelt down next to Severus after casting a drying and sterilizing charm on the ground. "Hey kid. I'm James, I'm just going to check you out. Okay?" He waited for Harry's nod before casting several diagnostic charms on Harry. His partner joined him and cast her own series of spells on Harry.

Severus felt his blood go cold when the Mediwizard said his name. _James! No, relax. It's not James Potter. Harry still thinks I'm his father. No one knows yet. Just relax and breathe Severus. Harry needs you. _He watched as the Emergency Medics finished up casting their spells on his son.

"Are you his father?" James asked as he summoned a splint from the flying carpet.

Snape nodded, laughing internally at the thought of a James thinking that he, Severus, was Harry's father. "Is he all right? Can I take him home now?" He asked, anxious to get home and care for his son and then lock all of the brooms in the school up.

"All right. He's broken his leg and he'll need to come to St. Mungo's for potion treatment. You'll be able to take him home later tonight." James told him before casting a sleeping charm on Harry and pulling his leg straight before fastening the splint around it.

Severus frowned. "I'm a Potion Master, and a Medic. I assure you, I can care for him at home. It was simply the school's policy to contact healers." He glared at the two Emergency Medics.

James exchanged a look with his partner. "It's against our policy to let someone leave without care." He carefully examined the certification card that Severus handed him. "But I'm not going to take him if you object." He stood up and smiled. "If you need any help, please contact us."

Snape nodded and scooped his sleeping son into his arms. "Thank you for responding so quickly." He toned down his glare as they walked past.

"Hello Professor Snape." The Emergency Mediwitch whispered, blushing fiercely as she passed him.

Snape raised an eyebrow at his former student. "Already qualified Miss Mortan?"

She shook her head. "In training Sir. But Potions has been easy so far!" For a moment she forgot who she was talking to and smiled brightly at him. A second later her smiled disappeared to be replaced with mortification. "Sorry Sir!" She squeaked before hurrying back to the flying carpet.

Snape glared at the children beginning to crowd around his feet. The Secretary was moving in his direction, but he turned on the spot and apparated to just outside the gates of Hogwarts before realising his mistake. _Now I've got to carry Harry all the way up to the castle! It would have been much easier to just use the floo. _He took advantage of magic and cast a feather-light charm on Harry to make him lighter and arrive at the school more quickly.

It was a long twenty minutes before Snape was back in his quarters and lying Harry down on a camp bed in his lab. It would make administering potions and observing him much easier. Not to mention that everything he needed was already in the lab and it could be sterilized more quickly.

Harry felt a strange fog lift off his mind. It left him feeling slightly nauseous and tired. And his leg was starting to hurt again. "Da, it hurts!" He whined, rubbing at the tears that were gathering in his eyes. "Da."

Snape tucked his wand back into his holster and pulled Harry into a sitting position, using a spell to support his back. "Shush Harry. You're all right." He soothed, rubbing his back gently, silently cursing the Games teacher. Pain block spells always left the patient in more pain than they had been in originally. "I've got a potion for you."

"No potions." Harry complained. "My leg hurts!" He hugged Severus tightly. "Make it stop Da!"

With a wave of his hand, Severus summoned the Skele-Gro potion into his hand. The potion would stimulate the cells in Harry's bone and make it repair itself faster. It was already set, the splint took care of that. "Here you go." He pressed the vial to Harry's lips. "It will make your leg stop hurting. Just drink it."

But Harry refused to open his mouth. He knew what potions tasted like, and very few of them were even bland, let alone nice tasting. The potion his Da wanted him to take didn't look very good either. It was green, sludgy and little wisps of smoke were coming off the top. "Icky." He complained, turning his face so that the vial was resting on his cheek.

"Come on Harry." Severus followed his mouth and tipped the vial up. "Just take it quick and you can have some juice right afterwards." He promised and pressed the vial into the place where Harry's lips met. "Just one swallow and it will be all gone."

At that moment the door to the lab burst open and Bellatrix bounded in with her robes flying wildly around her. "Is Harry all right?" She asked breathlessly. "Minerva needed to talk to you and the wards wouldn't open and oh!" She stared open mouthed at Harry.

Severus took the vial away from his son's lips. "Harry's broken his leg. I'm just giving him a potion to heal it." He didn't tell that he was having difficulties with it, it was embarrassing enough that he couldn't feed his own son a potion.

"Of course." Bellatrix pulled her robes around and sat next to Harry on the camp bed. "Come on Harry." She wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

With both Bellatrix and Severus working together, they managed to get Harry to open his mouth and drink the foul Skele-Gro.

"Good job Harry. It's all gone. No more." Severus reminded him as he conjured a goblet and filled it with water. "Here you go. Have some water."

Harry drank the water as quickly as he could. The nasty taste of the potion lingered in his mouth and it burned his throat as he swallowed it. "Yucky." He told his father. "And it hurts!" He cried as the burning pain started in his leg.

"Shhhh." Bellatrix took the potion that Severus handed to her. "Have a pain killer. Then you can sleep."

For this potion, Harry didn't hesitate. He drank the draft as quickly as he could and let out a great sigh of relief as soon as the pain in his leg dulled and he was able to relax into his father's embrace. It didn't take him very long to fall asleep and within a few minutes his chest was slowly rising and falling.

"I'll put him to bed." Snape told Bellatrix. "You should get back to your classes. I'll stay with him for today."

Bellatrix just smiled. "Are you certain? I would be willing to stay with him." She made as if to touch his arm in a gentle caress, but stopped before touching him. "I'm leaving now." Her face turned crimson and she hurried out of the floo and Severus heard the door open and shut. The floo would have been faster, but she needed the walk up to her classroom to compose herself.

It took Severus all of three minutes to change Harry into his pyjamas and tuck him into bed. _And now he'll sleep for the next few hours. Why didn't I accept Bellatrix's offer to stay here so I could get back to class?_ He placed a few charms on Harry so that he would be alerted when the boy woke up and closed the door almost all the way before heading to his office to get some more marking done.

Once classes had ended Severus prepared himself for the influx of students wanting to know what they needed to do in order to make up for the classes they had missed. He had quite a Ravenclaw classes on this particular day and they were always worrying about their marks.

"Severus?"

Snape was so startled that he almost overturned his bottle of ink. "Honestly Minerva! You should say something instead of scaring the life out of someone!" He set his quill down and used a hasty charm to remove the ink that had been splattered all of the fifth years paper. Not that it mattered, ink splatters would have been a more interesting, and correct, read.

"Fine." McGonagall pulled out one of the chairs and sat down without being invited. "I was just wondering if I could see Harry."

Severus shrugged. "Go ahead. He should be still asleep. None of my alert charms have gone off." He opened the door that lead to his quarters with a flick of his wand. "Enjoy yourself. Want to stay for dinner?"

Minerva wanted to, but her conscience wouldn't let her. "Oh no Severus. I've got a meeting. A meeting with Dumbledore." She winced, hoping he would either ignore or miss her obvious lie. Lying wasn't something that she was good at. Even with the first war and spending a great deal of her time with Severus and Bellatrix hadn't helped her overcome that.

With a smile and a nod she slipped past her colleague and into his private quarters. Harry's door was still almost closed and she quickly fooled the alert charms into thinking that Harry was still asleep while she shook him awake quietly, clamping a hand over his mouth when he started to cry out.

"Shush Harry. It's me, Minerva." She moved in front of him so that he could see her face. Looking down at him like that reminded her of caring for him as a baby. Until today she'd kept her pact to not reveal Harry Potter to anyone.

But Dumbledore had been so worried and she had caved when he turned his bright blue eyes into her. She told him everything, about Bellatrix and Severus's Unbreakable vow, about Harry Black actually being Harry Potter, about temporary glamours hiding his scar. It wasn't hidden now and she tenderly traced a finger over it.

"What is it?" Harry asked, pushing himself up onto his elbows. "Is Da okay?"

Minerva tried not to show her anger towards Severus in that situation. Severus hadn't told Harry that he was only his adoptive father. Bellatrix had claimed that Harry was the son of one of her distant relatives who had been killed in the war as a Death Eater. And in his position as spy Severus had claimed that he'd been forced on her by use of a potion. He'd actually taken the love potion to make sure the residue was in his blood.

It hurt Minerva that Harry was being lied to. He didn't need to know that he was Harry Potter, but somehow she felt that Severus was trying to punish James by refusing to acknowledge him.

"I just wanted to make sure you were all right." She told Harry. "And to give you this. It gets a bit boring when you have to stay in bed." She told him with a smile as she handed him one of the only remaining Hogwarts year books. Only a few years had them made and only three from James, Lily and Severus's graduating year remained. "I hope you like it." Minerva didn't tell him that she put a photograph of the Potter family into the book for him to find. All the secrets were driving her mad. She was a Gryffindor, action was her forte.

"Thanks." Harry gave her a small smile.

Minerva forced herself to smile back, even if she was going against everything she'd promised Severus and Bellatrix. "Get well soon Harry." With one last look at the book she'd brought she turned and left the room.

Harry ran his fingers of the embossed words on the front of the book. It was beautifully crafted and the fancy script read _**Hogwarts: The Graduating Class. **_He opened the book and skimmed through the introduction and individual pictures.

The class pictures were what he really wanted to look at. He knew that this was the book from when his father had graduated. There was one on the shelf in his office, but Harry wasn't allowed to look in it, ever! Harry paged quickly through the class pictures, he needed Seventh Year and it was at the end. But just when he was about to turn to the next page, one of the other photos caught his eye.

_**Gryffindor Seventh Years **_was written across the top of the page and the people in it looked so happy and carefree. In the centre of the picture was a young man with messy hair and glasses just like Harry's. Harry pulled the book closer to his face and looked over the Gryffindor boy.

_He looks a lot like me. More than my father does. I wonder if they're related. _The man had his arm wrapped around the waist of the most beautiful woman Harry had ever seen. She looked so happy to be with the people around her and every few seconds she'd turn to the boy beside her and give him a dazzling smile.

Harry checked the caption at the bottom of the picture. Apparently the five friends in the front of the picture were Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Lily Evans, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew. He'd heard of all of them, except for Remus Lupin. When they'd studied history in school and learned about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named they'd learned how James and Lily Potter were killed defending their son, Harry Potter who was the saviour of the wizarding world. But after that night he'd disappeared.

It hurt Harry to think about that Halloween night. Mum had told him that it was also the night that his father had taken him back and she'd adopted him.

Sirius Black was a Death Eater. He'd killed Peter Pettigrew and he was in Azkaban now. They'd done an entire unit on Azkaban prison and the people that were prisoners there. Harry shivered at the memories of it. He was certain that he never wanted to meet a dementor.

But in the picture they all looked unaware of their fates. Lily and James had died a few short years after the picture was taken. Harry turned the page angrily. He didn't want to have to look at pictures of bad people and dead people. He wanted to find his father's picture.

_There he is! _Harry smiled at the picture of his father. He looked just the same as he'd always. He was standing off to the side of the picture with his nose in a book. The rest of the Slytherins ignored him for the most part. Harry did notice that one boy kept coming over and taking small potion vials from him. It confused Harry, but he didn't ponder it.

The awards and clubs lists were next. Lily Evans and his father had both received top marks and gotten awards in Potions. Lily had an award in charms to. She looked very familiar to Harry. But his mother was a pureblood, a Black. Maybe Lily was related to him in some way.

Harry finished paging through the book. There wasn't any more pictures of anyone he recognized. Although it had been interesting to see the pictures of the staff. Even Filch looked much younger and Mrs. Norris had more hair.

But when he turned to the next page something fell out of the book onto his blanket covered lap. Harry picked it up. It was a photograph. One of the very special photo because it was in colour and moving. Usually colour was just for muggle pictures. For some reason the normal animation potion didn't work very well on colour photos.

James and Lily were in the picture. Harry looked at them closely. Lily was even more beautiful than she had been in black and white. Her eyes were the same green colour as his and she had long red hair framing her face. And Harry was struck by how much he looked like James. They had the same hair colour and James's hair was in a mess all over the place, just like Harry's.

And between the two adults was an infant. And infant with bright green eyes and messy black hair. _That must be Harry Potter! _Harry looked closely at the picture. It was exciting to get a glimpse of the Boy-Who-Lived. Especially since he hadn't been seen in years.

Harry flipped the picture over to read the words on the back. _**Lily and James Potter, along with their son, Harry Regulas Black. **_It was all written in McGonagall's neat script. But Harry wasn't noticing the neatness of the writing.

He was too busy trying to take in the meaning of the words. _Lily and James only had one son! And I'm not him! Why would the Potters have a son whose last name is Black anyway? My mother was a Death Eater and Severus Snape is my father. But I do look like James. _Harry struggled with his thoughts. He was confused and nervous at the same time.

Harry climbed off his bed and pulled his slippers on. Even if the weather was nice, the dungeons were still friged and he didn't want to get another lecture for not dressing properly. He put his wait carefully and gently onto his previously broken leg. It felt much better and he could barely tell that it had even been broken.

But before he could put on his dressing gown and head out of the room, the door burst open and his father, _at least, I think he's my father, _strode into the room with his robes billowing behind wildly him in his haste to get to Harry.

"What do you think you're doing?" He scooped Harry up and deposited him back on his bed. "You could have been seriously hurt or damaged your healing leg!" He flicked his wrist and summoned his wand into his wand before waving it over Harry in a diagnostic charm.

Harry squirmed away from the wand. "I'm fine Da!" He protested. "My leg doesn't hurt at all!" He protested. It was actually starting to feel sore and stiff, but he definitely didn't want any more potions. The one to make his leg heal had been utterly nasty!

Snape grabbed his son's leg and held him still. "Stop moving! I need to scan your leg." He gripped Harry's leg tightly, his grip was very strong from stirring potions and preparing ingredients so often. "It'll be over in a few seconds."

Harry stopped moving and let his Da run his wand over his leg and he tried to ignore the annoying tickle going through his leg. "Is it done now?" He asked, sitting up as soon as Snape pulled his wand away. He wanted to ask him about the picture and find out who he really was.

With a snap of his fingers, Severus summoned a healing potion and a slightly weaker does of Skele-Gro. He blocked out Harry's groan and summoned a cup of sweet pumpkin juice. "Just one more dose Harry. The potion seems to be doing its work." He sat down next to Harry and wrapped and arm around him, pulling him onto his lap.

"Do I have to?" Harry whined. The Skele-Gro seemed to look even more disgusting than before.

"Just take it and get it over with." Snape tipped his head back and waited until he opened his mouth to protest again. He fed him the potion quickly, tilting Harry forward until the potion was gone. Harry took the pain relief potion on his own and drained the juice cup.

"Ugh!" He took another long drink. "That was horrible!" He scowled at his father. "Thanks a lot."

Snape looked sternly at his son. "Harry, the potions will help you recover. Muggles have to wear plaster casts for weeks and months to heal broken bones. It took me less than twenty-four hours to take care of yours."

"Sorry." Harry mumbled. He picked the photograph off the bed and handed it to his father. "Is that me?" He asked bluntly.

Severus took the photo and glanced at it. He felt as if the world had stopped moving around him. _I feared this would happen. I don't want any part of Potter screwing with my life and my son! _His hand that was closest to the photograph of James tightened and the photo crumpled in his fingers.

"Da? Am I Harry Potter?" Harry asked anxiously. It would explain why his father and mother always cast 'special spells' over him every night and morning. They must have been to hide his scar. "I am, aren't I?"

More than anything Snape just wanted to tell Harry to stop being ridiculous. But he didn't want to lie to his son, _No, he's not really my son. He's a son of my heart, not of my blood._ Snape didn't answer immediately, he hugged Harry tightly. "You are my son, Harry Black."

"But-"

Snape released Harry so that he could see his face. "No matter who you were, you are mine now. They were your family. And they did love you, but now they are dead." _Maybe Minerva didn't ruin everything. Now the lying can stop and I can rest more easily. It's not like James Potter can come and take his son back._

Harry nodded, biting his lip. "They died for me. That's what the books at school say. Lily and James Potter and I'm Harry."

"Don't forget who you are. Harry Black, and Harry Potter. You will always be my son."


End file.
